%% ID: 13204929 Updated: 2022-01-28 %% ![](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article3.5c705a01b476.png) # About Title: [[Other/Obsidian Starter Vault(Second Brain)/Readwise/Articles/The 4 Levels of Personal Knowledge Management]] Author: [[Tiago Forte]] Category: #articles Number of Highlights: ==33== Last Highlighted: *2021-12-04* Readwise URL: https://readwise.io/bookreview/13204929 Source URL: https://fortelabs.co/blog/the-4-levels-of-personal-knowledge-management/ # Highlights In order to get where you’re going, you need to know where you came from ^278319638 --- When it comes to learning, you need a way to measure your progress toward your goal ^278319639 --- In sports you might do a jump test, or run the mile, or swim as many laps as you can. To receive a driver’s license, you need to take a written test and a driving test. In any domain where it’s important to measure progress, we need tests. ^278319640 --- Capture: Saving valuable information from the internet and the world around youOrganize: Breaking that information into small chunks and preparing them for later useDistill: Extracting the pieces of knowledge most relevant to your current goalsExpress: Turning your knowledge into creative output that has an impact on others ^278319641 --- 4-stage process for knowledge management, known as CODE: ^278319642 --- You take notes sparingly on your smartphone or mobile device, and mostly for one-time, practical tasks like keeping a grocery list, notes from a meeting or phone call, or saving bookmarks from websites. You may even occasionally save notes from sources you consume, such as books or podcasts, but don’t do much with them. ^278319643 --- Level 1: Storing Information ^278319644 --- Level 2: Managing Knowledge ^278319645 --- You have begun to capture not just factual information, but ideas and creative inspiration: lessons you’ve learned, ideas you’ve had, quotes that resonated, connections between ideas, metaphors and analogies, observations and personal reflections, etc. This includes both ideas from your own thoughts and from external sources. ^278319646 --- you enjoy capturing information from a wide variety of sources such as documents, books, articles, photos, drawings, screenshots, business cards, videos, or recipe ^278319647 --- You are on your devices like everyone else, but you are not just consuming information. You are capturing the best of what you find in your own personal library of knowledge. ^278319648 --- Your mind is more clear and able to focus because you know that everything important is reliably saved. ^278319649 --- You have a clear picture of how information flows through your system and ends up as tangible deliverables in the world. ^278319650 --- Level 3: Enabling Action ^278319651 --- You aren’t satisfied with generating insights, but want to see those insights manifested in the real world. You are committed to using your insights to tangibly improve your learning, health, career, business, and society ^278319652 --- You are dramatically more productive, creative, and relaxed than you would be otherwise. ^278319653 --- you apply just as much creativity to the workings of your system as to the knowledge it contains. ^278319654 --- The benefits of your system extend beyond your personal goals and begin to impact the people around you. You make your most valuable knowledge available to others in concrete form, such as through a website, blog, social media feed, podcast, or product. ^278319655 --- you are constantly attracting new opportunities and collaborations as others encounter your work ^278319656 --- Interacting with your note-taking system brings you a sense of excitement and inspiration. You have complete confidence that you can take in any kind of information, break it into small pieces, and prepare them for quick retrieval in future projects, both known and unknown ^278319657 --- Your knowledge management system gives you the confidence that you have more than enough research and supporting material for anything you want to pursue. Which means you have the freedom to pursue the most exciting, inspiring, and important pursuits you can think of. ^278319658 --- Level 4: Personal Knowledge Mastery ^278319659 --- Your knowledge works as a system greater than the sum of its parts, pulling in new material almost of its own will and effortlessly sorting and distilling it to support your long-term projects and goals ^278319660 --- There is a constant output from your Second Brain into the external world, taking the form of documents, essays, summaries, designs, videos, presentations, and more ^278319661 --- You use these artifacts to make powerfully persuasive arguments, to recruit people to your cause, and to build an unassailable reputation for innovation and leadership. Your system continuously evolves and improves over time using the ideas it encounters, seemingly on its own ^278319662 --- All your digital tools are integrated and work seamlessly together, requiring only occasional intervention on your part. ^278319663 --- You are practically immune to interruptions, and can make progress in any span of time and in any environment. ^278319664 --- You use your Second Brain not only to acquire knowledge, but entirely new skills and capabilities. ^278319665 --- You use your system to study your own inner workings like a scientist. ^278319666 --- Your notes track patterns in your thinking and learning over time, helping you understand your own evolution and direct it intentionally ^278319667 --- You exist in a state of abundance, where ideas lead to ever more ideas. There is always more where that came from, and you realize that the more you give away, the more comes back to you ^278319668 --- As you teach it to others, the game gets even more fun and even more real. You can’t fail, because failure is just more information being turned into fuel for your creative process ^278319669 --- You are unattached to any particular identity or belief, because you have so many others at your disposal ^278319670